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24 June 2013

Malt barley in Finland: sowing tasks

In this occasion, our friend Timo, from Laihia (Finland), sent us a few pictures and comments about his sowing tasks. Talking about sowing, it will be very strange for our Spanish followers because we are harvesting now, but in the north of Europe, cereal sowing is done in May or June... we are sure it will be very interesting for all of Spaniards since they can see as other farmers carry out similar sowing tasks in another country so different than ours.

According to his indications, fields are ploughed in autumn and he can't do anything until the following spring, when he harrows them with minichissel plough and sows these grounds again. Sowing tasks are very complicated because it rains very frequently and they can be lengthen. It is very important for him to sowing in time because summer is short and he needs to harvest in September (so he requires to have appropriate machinery which allows him to work quickly). After that, cold, snow and rain won't allow him to work to next spring... even soil will be frozen during main winter months.

The seed drill used is a Tume JC3000. It is a mix, so he uses about 230kg/ha of barley and about 480kg/ha of Yara fertilizer (23% N, 3% P, 6% K, 1% Mg, 6% S, 0.05% B, 0.3% Mn, 0.05% Zn and 0.0015% Se). It is put 2cm under the seed. At the same level of seed he uses 25 kg/ha of fertilizer with 12% N and 23% P.

The plough used in autumn is a Kverneland ES-80 of four rows (but we are going to speak about that in September) and the minichissel plough used are Väderstad NZE500 (we love them). The working speed with this minichissel is about 10km/h and sowing speed is 8.5km/h.